C-18 · Generating Documents, Letters and Reports¶

Draft page

Captions marked [confirm] and the "Open items" section are still being verified against the live product.

Book C — Daily User Guide · Part 6 Documents & Communication · draft v1 (2026-08-29)

Who: everyone When: any time a letter, form, contract or report is needed for a project. Where: the print icon at the top right of the project window opens Printing Options; many tabs also have their own document buttons (Construction Contract, Owner Review, Verification Letter, Approval Letter …) that use the same engine. Free-form correspondence has its own chapter (▸ C-19).

What you'll end up with¶

A Word document (or Access report) merged from the project's data, saved automatically in the right project subfolder with a standard file name, opened for you to check, and — if you choose — emailed as a PDF to the applicant, contractor or staff, with an entry in the project log. You never type names, addresses or amounts into a letter: if the document is wrong, the data is wrong, and you fix it on the form.

Part A — Printing Options (the print icon)¶

Open the project and click the print icon (top right, beside the folder icon). The Printing Options window opens, titled with the project.
Filter the list on the left — Printing Options (project documents) or Applicant Correspondence (letters; the Correspondence tab opens the form already filtered that way).
Select the document from the list. The choices available for that document appear on the right — your agency administrator decides, per document, which of these are allowed (▸ B-7):

Control	What it does
Preview	merge and open the document in Word for you to check / print
Email	merge, convert to PDF, and attach to an email
Word document only	merge and save without opening (for batch work)
Print tick	also send to the default printer
Auto send email	send the email immediately instead of opening it for editing
Applicant · Contractor · Loan Coordinator · Rehab Specialist ticks	who the email goes to; the first ticked is the To, the rest are CC
Email body text / Copy-paste into email body	use the agency's standard body text, or put the letter text itself into the email

📷 C18-01 Printing Options with a document selected and the option panel showing. 4. Click Print Document [confirm caption — PrintDocument]. 5. HousingOS merges the template with the project, saves it, opens it (Preview) or attaches it (Email), and writes a log entry naming the document. Emails need the addresses on file — "Applicant Email Address is Missing! Return to the Application form…", and "No primary recipient checkbox is selected" if nothing is ticked.

Part B — Where files go and what they're called¶

Each document is filed by its folder key into the project's numbered subfolders — application forms in 1 – Application, contracts and notices in 2 – Documents, letters in 10 – Correspondence, bid material in 6 – Bidding, and so on. The folder icon next to the print icon opens the project folder.
File names are standard: ‹Last name›-‹Document name›.docx for most documents, and ‹Letter name› – ‹Last name› – ‹Street address›.docx for correspondence letters. Don't rename them — other buttons (email, re-merge, the Staff Workroom) look for these names.
If the file already exists you're asked what to do:
"… already exists for this project." → Open Existing · Create New (saves a numbered copy — the original is never overwritten) · Cancel;
for some documents → Open Existing · Re-merge (replace) · Cancel. Re-merge is the one to use after you've corrected data.
Some buttons prompt "The SOW Review letter already exists. Do you want to replace it?" (Yes/No) instead.

Part C — Documents from the tabs¶

Many documents are produced from the tab where their data lives — the Construction Contract, Termite Contract, Owner Review letter, Employment / Deposit Verification letters, Approval Letter, Notice to Proceed, change orders. They use the same engine and the same folder rules; the button first checks its data and tells you exactly what's missing ("Contract Date is Missing", "Select Household Member and Income Source" …).

If you pick one of these in Printing Options instead, you'll see "This form/letter/report must be printed from the area of the form where you enter data concerning the document" — go to that tab.

Part D — Reports¶

Access reports (status reports, bid review, CSLB verification, income worksheet …) open in preview; most also save a PDF into the project folder. The Report Center on the Navigation form is for program-wide reports (▸ C-21); Printing Options is for this project's reports.

Watch-outs — when the document looks wrong¶

A field shows "$0.00", "Sample Text", or an old client's name. The engine never writes those — it is text sitting in the Word template where a HousingOS Field used to be. Someone edited the template and removed or overtyped the field. Tell your agency administrator which document; they fix the template by copying a fresh field from the HousingOS Fields reference document (▸ B-7 §3a). Correcting the project data will not change it.
A name or row keeps appearing that isn't in HousingOS — same cause: literal text in the template.
Wrong applicant on the document / applicant missing. Documents include an applicant only when On Title is ticked for them on the APPLICATION tab ("Choose which applicants' names are included on the documents").
"The Mailing Address is Missing!" / "The Property Address is Missing!" — answer Yes to enter it (or copy the mailing address to the property).
"Please select a Rehab Specialist / Loan Coordinator" — the letter signs from those staff records; set them on the project first (▸ C-3).
"No Document Set-Up For This Coded Name …" / "… is not set up for this Program" / "Template not found" — the template is missing from the program's document list; agency administrator (▸ B-7).
"This document is currently open … Please close it, then click the button again to re-merge." — you (or a colleague) have the Word file open.
"Word could not be started. A previous Word session may still be running." — close every Word window; if it persists, end WINWORD.EXE in Task Manager and try again.
Word appears in Task Manager but no document shows — a previous email flow left Word running; close it from Task Manager and repeat.
Nothing happens on Print Only — check the default printer; the file is still saved in the folder.

Screenshot shot list (Demo backend)¶

Shot	Where	What to capture
C18-01	Printing Options	a document selected, option panel visible (Preview/Email, CC ticks)
C18-02	Printing Options	filter set to Applicant Correspondence
C18-03	prompt	the "already exists" ChoiceDialog (Open Existing / Create New / Cancel)
C18-04	project folder	a document saved with the standard name in its subfolder
C18-05	header icons	crop of the four icons top-right of the project window (I'll label them)

Video script — "Producing a document" (target 2½ min)¶

#	On screen	Narration
1	Project window, print icon	"Every letter, form and contract comes from the project's data. Click the print icon to open Printing Options."
2	Filter + list	"Filter for project documents or correspondence, then pick the document."
3	Option panel	"The options your agency allows for that document appear on the right — preview it in Word, email it as a PDF, tick who receives it."
4	Print Document → Word opens	"Click Print Document. HousingOS merges, saves the file in the right project subfolder with a standard name, and opens it."
5	Already-exists prompt	"If the file already exists you choose: open it, create a numbered copy, or re-merge after fixing data."
6	Wrong value in a doc	"If a document shows the wrong value, fix the data on the form and re-merge. If it shows sample text or a dollar-zero, that's text in the template — tell your administrator."
7	Log entry	"Every document is written to the project log."
8	Outro	"Next: correspondence and email."

Open items for John (this chapter)¶

Captions: the Print Document button; the option group labels (Preview / Email / Word document only?) on Printing Options; the four header icons on the project window (red = comments? doc-plus = ? folder, print).
The folder-key → subfolder mapping in Part B is my reading of the ProjectFolderSetup rows — confirm the four examples.
Photos in documents: which documents pull photos from 3 – Photos (SHPO/inspection reports?), and is there anything users must do (file naming) for them to be picked up? I've left photos out of this draft pending your answer.